Intel 13th Gen Core i9 processor
Just a few weeks ago, Geekom made a big deal out of the Mini IT13. At the time of its introduction, it bragged about being the “world’s first mini PC powered by an Intel 13th Gen Core i9 CPU.” It came as a bit of a surprise that the news was made so soon after the company’s Mini IT12 hit the market, but it’s always best to act quickly, and the Mini PC market seems to have suddenly become hot.
Intel effectively exited the NUC market this summer, giving this release some background and special significance for Geekdom. As it was leaving, Intel gave ASUS, who was its heir, its crown. In more detail, ASUS would produce, market, and support Intel’s 10th through 13th Gen NUC devices, in addition to continuing the tradition with upcoming models.
Between the echoes of “the king is dead, long live the king,” Geekom might be detecting a chance. The company appears to have timed the launch of the Mini IT13 just to take advantage of a huge market opportunity, suggesting that a successful challenge to the NUC mini-PC throne may be worthwhile.
Geekom Mini IT13 Impression
Geekom has professionally presented their Mini IT13. The box has a high-end appearance and is heavy and small. Its matte black box features areas that have undergone an additional printing press pass and have been gloss varnished. The interior maintains a premium impression with well-designed compartments, foam cut-outs, and printed materials.
Along with the Mini PC, the box also includes a power adapter with a barrel jack, a power lead suited for the region, an HDMI cable, and a VESA mounting plate with the required screws. Considering that Geekom’s chosen power brick is very large, we immediately believed that we would have preferred for them to send the mini-PC with a GAN technology charger or a USB-C adaptor instead.
Mini IT13 Construction, Build Quality and Finish
When you pay serious attention to the main attraction, the ultra-compact Mini PC, it feels substantial and of a particular caliber in your hands. The device is advertised by Geekom as having a metal frame. That is accurate; nevertheless, the metal frame is hidden by a hard plastic casing, and we unlocked the device to inspect the motherboard.
The Geekom Mini IT13 was rather simple to open. The bottom plate may then be levered off with just four captive corner screws on the underside. Once off, you have simple access to the two M.2 slots (one M.2 2242 SATA slot is empty, and one M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 x4 slot contains an SSD).
There is still more built-in storage available, though, as the system is also prepared to accommodate an internal 2.5-inch SATA device and provides an accessible full-sized SD card port as part of the available I/O.
As part of its research and development, Geekom appears to have put the Mini IT13 through a comforting variety of durability tests. The gadget has reportedly been tested for things like vibration, drop testing, and even a salt spray test, in addition to being engineered to survive a wide range of working temperatures and humidity levels.
According to this research, it appears that durability is a selling point for consumers as well as for industrial, kiosk, and signage businesses. Last but not least, Geekom’s remarkable three-year warranty demonstrates its confidence in its product, which appears to be well-made.
A 4-inch package containing an Intel 13th Raptor Lake Core i9? Yes
According to the headline, this small computer that practically fits in your palm is powered by an Intel Core i9 “Raptor Lake” processor. With that Core i9 inside, our sample was the most expensive model. The Core i9-13900H is a mobile chip, which makes sense in certain circumstances. The CPU has 14 cores, 20 threads, a maximum clock speed of 5.40 GHz, and 24MB of cache.
It has a 45W TDP with rapid turbo bursts allowing up to 115W, according to official Intel spec sheets. There are 96 EUs of Intel’s Iris Xe graphics on board, and they are fairly powerful for an iGPU, operating at up to 1.50 GHz.
Geekom Mini IT13 Mini Benchmarks
Let’s begin moving through the Hot Hardware benchmark pillars without further ado because we know you can’t wait to see some benchmarks for this little powerhouse. We had to decide whether to generally compare this technology to laptops or desktops before we could begin. We chose a competitive sector with the most laptop performance comparisons because the Mini IT13 has an H-series laptop chip.
Although the Geekom Mini IT13 is in a compact desktop form factor, which theoretically should provide it a thermal advantage, it is so small (including the cooling system) that we doubted it would outperform our top laptop competitors.
